Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main islands of São Tomé and Príncipe,150 km apart and 250 km off the north-western coast of Gabon.

Environment: According with the National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (NBSAP), major environmental issues include deforestation for construction and charcoal; coastal erosion caused by sand mining for construction; desertification; unregulated construction and tourism development along the coastline due to the lack of town and country planning; land-based pollution from human sources (pesticides and sewage) in rivers; capture of endangered species (e.g. turtles); and marine pollution from ships and illegal dumping at sea. There is an appreciable fish stock est approx 8500 tonnes of pelagic resources within vast jurisdictional waters (160000 km2) including valuable species of tunas. Therefore, fisheries resources of the EEZ are extremely important for national economy and for the regional environment as well. São Tomé and Príncipe is an important marine turtle-nesting site, including the hawksbill turtles.